Adam Creighton,

Many Thanks for your story. Is there any lesson the readers of On Line Opinion can gather from it

...The market determines the true value of money; speculation drives that market. No need for a gold standard at all.

diver dan,

You are right!

“It is speculation that drives the market”.

What the Americans know as Wall Street speculation? Where criminals hold-up Stock Exchanges with weapons that make the Mafia’s repetition-guns sound like sweet music?

Ever heard of gentlemen by the name of Charles Ponzi or of Bernie Madoff and the many who follow their example?

And what of that well known Philanthropist, Michael Milken, well known for the billions he fraudulently made by speculating on the stock Exchange?

Have you ever heard of Richard Pratt who made billions by breaking the antimonopoly Laws?

I suppose you did not mind paying two or three cents more for a container of milk; loosing one cent a day is not a big deal, is it?

And what of Bank’s CEOs taking home tens of millions per year? What do they do with all that stuff?

No one I know needs more than one bed and, at most, three meals per day.

Can you see the paradox of one taking from the bank he manages the very Capital that that bank needs for renting?

Think of how many among the people you know have a job that produce something useful to others, and how many go to work and produce nothing at all.

I am sure that you do not need help to list into job categories your friends, relatives and neighbors for the purpose of estimating their productive input into your society.

Mr. diver dan, we don’t need a Gold Standard, but surely we need some ‘Standards’.

...Well skeptic…you have probably worked out by now, I am as sceptical as the best; but we as citizens have all the possibilities necessary to buy gold as an alternative to paper money as a hedge to inflation: But that is speculation. You must agree that the speculative value of gold is also assisting positively, Governments holding gold in reserves: This article highlights the point.

...Now to your other point, the only true value is earned value, as against the value of speculation which is non-productive value; our economy is prefaced on speculative value of housing. The anticipation that speculation is all positive, is proving now to be somewhat vaporous as the market corrects housing value downwards.

...All Ponzi and pyramid schemes are illegal and are controlled by regulation; Madoff is serving a 150 year jail sentence in the USA as an example. As my line states consistently on OLO, we need a return of “Moral” standards which self-regulate against dishonesty, and support community welfare against personal greed and narcissism

Moral” standards which self-regulate against dishonesty, and support community welfare against personal greed and narcissism.
diver dan,
Non-military National Service for a start.

Individual:

"Non-military National Service for a start".

There is a whole nother subject just awaiting...DD

The truth has been so twisted and turned
that our belief system..in capitalistic America has become our biggest enemy.

We have been led to believe that the stock market
is an independent structure, operating within government guidelines…

But when we open up government’s Institutional Fund
and Pension Fund investment portfolios and asset listings,
we can easily find that the stock market
is owned through stock investment by government funds.

http://www.youtube.com/v/fhkWueEjewM&hl

http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/

there is some outstanding matters

venusuala wants its 99 tons of gold back
http://silverdoctors.blogspot.com/2011/08/hugo-chavez-demands-99-tons-of.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/chavez-pulls-venezuelas-gold-jp-morgan-great-scramble-physical-starting

but the gold is suss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKczs-7BFRI

but it gets better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ttMmU_jwcA
an unmentioned run on greek banks
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/08/17/silent-great-depression-style-run-greece-banks-spreads-banks-europe-60431/

and guess who wants to audit the fed
berat the front runner[not that anyone will mention his name]
http://grandrapidscity.com/news/articles/ron-paul-trounces-rick-perry-in-presidential-poll#.Tkw0ugJUwZ4.email

if you can handle some truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyutryL_SY

hedge your bets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8704818/Investors-hedge-their-bets-on-Americas-biggest-banks.html

there are even quite simple cures
http://dailybail.com/home/you-put-lloyd-blankfein-in-pound-me-in-the-ass-prison-for-on.html

we do know what the real cause is
high frequency traitering
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike_whitney/28074/high_frequency_trading_high_tech_highway_robbery

short selling..[ie rent it..sell it]
try that with a rented house?
or a rented car

http://dailybail.com/home/goldman-sachs-is-far-too-important-for-criminal-charges-coul.html
official malfeasance
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/is-the-sec-covering-up-wall-street-crimes-20110817?print=true

most home reposessions[92%]
havnt the right paperwork
http://dailybail.com/home/obama-plans-another-stimulus-new-high-in-past-due-mortgages.html

how about this cure
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/08/17/case-against-mers-reaches-supreme-court
http://www.bobtuskin.com/2011/08/17/economic-end-times/

keep up to date with the latest
http://whatreallyhappened.com/

govt sec gets rid of proof
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2011/08/17/sec-whistleblower-feds-destroyed-evidence-thousands-wall-streets-worst-crimes-60321/
more background
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q2aVnPP1C4

stand down the sec
http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=112160

more wistle blowing
http://www.senseoncents.com/2011/08/sec-attorney-darcy-flynn-blows-whistle-on-wall-street-washington-incest/

and the cure is?
build your own web
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3hzDAUfMOM

or revalue the coin,back to its intended gold silver values
by adding a 0..to the high value gold copin
and two zero's to the pennies[cents]

re capitalise the poor
by restoring true value back to the coin age
[see my previous posts]

We would do much better protesting at the high Australian dollar and using our brains to solve this human problem, to remedy many of our economic ills, than protesting about a carbon tax.